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N.J. shelter director questions where research animals would go if spared from euthanization

Kittens at Common Sense for Animals

A bill proposed in the New Jersey Senate would require that research animals first be offered to shelters like Common Sense for Animals in Franklin Township, Warren County.
(Express-Times file photo | Bill Adams)

Sens. Michael Doherty, a Republican whose district covers portions of Hunterdon and Warren counties, and Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth, are sponsoring legislation — S2344 — that would require higher education institutions and research facilities to offer cats and dogs to animal rescue organizations for adoption prior to euthanizing the animals.

Doherty remarked that the bill could give healthy cats and dogs a second chance by giving them an opportunity to find a loving home.

"The animals could be healthy, available for adoption but that choice is not being made," he said. "This bill would require that the animals be offered to these rescue centers and have an opportunity to be adopted by a family before they're euthanized.

"An animal that is healthy should have an opportunity to be adopted, should be sent to a rescue center as opposed to outright euthanasia at the end of a research project," he said.

But Rick Alampi, executive director of the New Jersey Veterinary Medical Association representing the state's licensed veterinarians, said there may be issues with animals used for research purposes and their ability to be adopted.

"They may not be as well socialized as animals that are in a home environment," he said. "They may be older animals, which are typically harder to adopt out of a shelter."

Kent Quain serves as executive director of Common Sense for Animals, a no-kill shelter in Franklin Township. He said taking in more cats and dogs as a result of the bill would be tough because shelters already have too many animals.

"At basically any time we would have very little room to take them in, being a no-kill shelter," Quain said.

He noted the shelter turns down requests from people wanting to surrender their dogs and cats to them every day because of limited space.

"People are just dying to get the dogs to us, but we just have no room for them," Quain said. "We can have up to 45 dogs and 100 cats. We have 118 cats right now."

Quain said he sees a greater need for more no-kill shelters throughout New Jersey to accommodate the number of animals that would be coming in after research projects are completed.

"We need more shelters and the bill will not help anything except overload the shelters that already exist," he said.

The bill does not apply to those cats and dogs that are required to be euthanized for health and safety reasons.